Hate to say we told you so

Awhile back City Insider reported that the San Francisco school board expected to have a new student assignment system adopted by this summer.

But given previous delays in coming up with a new plan, we noted that holding one’s breath was ill advised.

We hate being right.

District officials now say they expect to adopt a new system by NEXT spring, which would then apply to the assignments for the 2011-2012 school year.

Turning blue yet?

Since 2001, the district has used household income, home language and other family characteristics to assign students to schools. The idea of the current system was to create diversity without using race as a factor. But segregation has gotten worse.

The current system, which includes a complicated application and selection of up to seven school choices, has frustrated parents, sometimes assigning students to unselected schools far from home.

(The district was required to consider race as a factor in student assignment from 1983 to 2001, per a court order. A lawsuit by Chinese American parents ended the practice.)

After several years of talking about changes to the system, the board has now established its three priorities for a new assignment process: to offer equitable access to various programs; to reverse “racial isolation and the concentration of under served students;” and “to be more equitable to all students, regardless of their family backgrounds.”

A district ad hoc committee addressing the issue has met seven times since December and is now on break for the summer.

So, in short, the old system is still in place and will remain so for just one more year, according to the district.